Should I do 90mpw this winter as a HS senior?

Yes.

Nah. I bet you'd be better at 65mpw than 80 or 90.

Yes, you should. If nothing else it will help prepare you for the 100 you will be running as a college freshman.

Yes, it makes perfect sense to 100 mile weeks to train for the the 3200.

You have nothing to lose so go for it. Make sure you are doing some 60 meter sprints at least a few times a week after an easy run to get the full benefit though. I only ran 9:50 in high school and ended up being a decent D1 runner. So there is still hope. Getting to your full potential can take several years for some of us.

carson28 wrote:

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I had a disappointing xc season this year.

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I did up to 75mpw this summer + cross season which included some workouts.

I just quoted your original post, leaving only the two lines that really stuck out at me, given your question.

Was your XC season disappointing because you ran 75mpw and you didn't improve as much as you wanted, or was it because your season was actually worse than your prior xc seasons? In other words, do you think that your 75mpw helped you, or did you go backwards?

Generally, I'm a believer in high miles (done properly, in doubles, and with some faster stuff, or at least strides, mixed in). So part of me suggests that you go for it. But, think first for a bit about why last xc season went poorly. Perhaps you're doing it wrong and need to run fewer miles but with faster paces - I'm just not sure.

Exactly. I was too lazy to write this out. Every mediocre (no offense) high school kid who wants to be good tells himself, "If I just run a lot more, I'll get a lot better." I was the same way. It ain't that simple. I ran up to 85 mpw during my junior year of HS winter and ended up having a mediocre, stagnant track season. The next winter, senior year, I stayed at 65 mpw, trained smarter, and ended up running well and going to a decent D1 program. It's better to train moderately and deliberately than train an extreme amount, especially for a high schooler.

I did improve a little bit this past season after 75mpw, but what stuck was a few races that were particularly bad, where as last year I was fairly consistent. My coach has us do mainly aerobic training, regardless of where we are in the season, so it would be difficult to sneak in extra workouts where as more miles wouldn’t be hard. I am probably going to run in college so the possibility of not improving when I get to that level is probably my biggest worry about this.

I'd be very careful about increasing things any further. It sounds like you're possibly still adjusting to the heavier workload - inconsistency, occasional tiredness etc. are quite common when you change something significantly.

I'd suggest keeping the overall volume around about the same and doing your team workouts and see if your body adapts to the workload better over the next few months.

In summary, its certainly too soon to draw any proper conclusions about the impact 76mpw has had on you so it wouldn't be sensible to increase it further at this stage.

I’d suggest keeping the mileage but more quality variety... if weather permits gradually start doing hill sprints every 5-7 days, do a progressive run or cruise intervals each week, longer hill reps (e.g. 6x 30s, progress it to 6x 60s by the end of base) etc. see Summer of Malmo for workout ideas and suggestions about the intensity

Do you play on running in college? If so, just do 75 mpw this winter. If not, then do the 90 mpw this winer.

My thoughts here are that you don't want to do too much too early in your development. If you don't want to run for a college team, then go for it. If you don't want to run in college just play it safe so that you have more room for further development in the future. Also, for what it's worth you don't have to run in college. You can just go to the local community college for 2 years then transfer to the local university to save dramatically on costs and just run on your own the whole time.

This poster has the right of it. Good advice.

75 mpw is way too much for a 16:32 5k wtf

What was your mileage like before bumping to 75 mpw? Sometimes it takes a while to adjust to a given training load, particularly if it represents a significant jump in volume. Could take a year. Just because you had a disappointing season, don’t assume that you were on the wrong track. You stayed healthy and showed some improvement. Despite what the a hole above will say, your times are very solid for your level of training. Less than 1% of people are going to run 15:30 for 5k on 30 mpw. If you feel like your training is stagnant then it’s time for new stimulus. That could mean more miles. Or it could mean greater intensity, new training partners, targeted cross training, more doubles, a longer long run, better diet, etc. My sense is you need something but don’t assume it’s just mileage.

ummmmm wrote:

75 mpw is way too much for a 16:32 5k wtf

Haha it’s almost like people have different levels of talent ;).

Anyway, thanks everyone for their insights. I think I’ll stick to around 75mpw and work in after runs more frequently, maybe hitting 80 one week.

faster*

no, 100mpw makes sense for an 800m runner

for the 320 no less than 150

Run doubles most every day. You'll find your sweet spot for mileage.

don't you have a coach?